Siren Music Festival Returns to Coney Island

Anyone that’s taken a trip to Brooklyn’s southern shore this spring has realized just how far Coney Island has fallen thanks to the villainy of “developer” Thor Equities and suspiciously major negotiation muck ups by the city. Astroland has been razed and Thor’s banners populate the ocean-side amusement area. Read more

How to Avoid Salesman Guilt

We’ve all been there. You’re leisurely shopping around a store with nary a thought to purchase, when a slick haired, sharply-dressed type comes over with “the perfect jacket for your figure”. While you stutter and politely protest, he ignores your advances and continues to fit you for your garment, pausing ever so slightly to nod in agreement at your fabulous garb. Read more

Review Corner: I Will Teach You to be Rich by Ramit Sethi

A few weeks back, I was able to get my hands on a copy of  Ramit Sethi’s (a personal finance blogger gone best selling author) new read.  Sethi’s book, “I will Teach You to be Rich” is a six-step program offering financial advice for people just starting out managing their money.  Like most financial know-hows, IWTYTBR doesn’t break any new barriers when it comes to basic financial principals.  But let’s face it:  personal finance isn’t nuclear science.  A successful PF book teaches people how to implement those basic ideas into their daily routine and make them stick.

I’ve read a decent amount of personal finance and investment books, and the ones that I find particularly effective and worthwhile are always the ones that break down the financial jargon into simple to understand terms.  No investopedia needed.

Luckily, Ramit’s book fits the bill with its easy-to-understand concepts and injected case studies that further explain financial concepts with realistic scenarios from friends and blog readers.

The starkly different concept of Sethi’s book, however, are his ideas on spending.  While hoards of other financial writers and bloggers will praise frugality and lecture you on the merits of reusing ziploc baggies and making your own laundry detergent to save $6 a month, Ramit does quite the opposite promoting an alternative to traditional budgeting called a “Conscience Spending Plan”.  And in doing so, he succeeds at bringing a sense of reality to money management.

As an example, in his chapter on controlling expenses he discusses his friend “Lisa’s” shoe spending — dropping a whopping five grand a year on footwear.  However, he further describes, that along with a healthy salary, she also still lives with a roommate, nixes expensive electronics and keeps eating out at a minimum.  While her priorities may seem out of whack to the rest of us, she’s spending money on the things that are important to her, while conserving funds in other areas of her life that she deems less important.

IWTYTBR revolves around a six-week program promoting a different financial concept each week that includes:

• Setting up credit cards and improving credit history
• Setting up the right bank accounts by negotiating no-fee, high interest accounts
• Opening and managing your 401(k) or Roth IRA Investment account
• Analyzing your spending and conceptualizing a budget that fits your spending
• Automating your banking infrastructure to make things run as smoothly and flawlessly as possible
• Learning how to get the most out of your investment accounts with very little work

At around 250 pages, it’s a quick read — and definitely worth your time if you’re like most people and trying (or perhaps forced?) to restructure your finances during the down economy.  And with the majority of young adults exiting college with an average of $12,000 in student loan debt and 66% having at least one credit card, it really couldn’t come at a more opportune time.

You can pick up a copy of Ramit’s book here , take a test run of a few chapters here, or you can play our little game in the Comments section for a chance to win a FREE copy!  Keeping on the topic of personal finance, we’re asking you guys to chime in with your own tips for saving money and managing your finances.  Our favorite tip wins a brand spankin’ new copy of I Will Teach You To Be Rich.  Contest officially closes on May 1st at 5pm, and the winner will be announced on May 4th.

Best Buy’s Huge $10 Videogame Blowout

Remember a time when videogaming was a hobby regulated to snot-nosed little brothers who congregated in basements with his nerdy buddies to blow hour upon hour on Halo? With the rise of the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii, the hobby has crossed virtually every demographic and has solidified itself as a true mainstream past time. Read more

Are MBAs Becoming Worthless?

Five of the top 10 global MBA programs are now accepting GRE scores in addition to the GMAT from prospective students, and there are now over 190 business schools around the world who accept the GRE, including Harvard Business School.

With the job market still waiting to see the light of day, the class of 2009 is eyeing graduate school as the next logical step in their career progression as their graduation date approaches. And along with these soon to be graduates, many recent grads who are either out of work or looking to get a leg up on their competition are also signing up to take the GRE.

In order to apply into an MBA program, most schools require the GMAT, not the GRE. The GMAT is specific in scoring a student based on their management skills that are learned both through work experience and school, while the GRE covers a range of subjects that are learned at the undergraduate level. It looks as if these programs could be accepting the GRE in anticipation of more students applying right out of college or with little work experience.

This leads us to wonder, between the economy and more programs accepting the GRE, what will this do to the value of an MBA degree?

Tara Nordstrom, a marketing professional, has been in the work force for nearly three years and is looking to take the GRE in hopes of getting into a management program. While Tara agrees that more and more students are looking to further their education, she doesn’t believe it will devalue her degree.

“There is still a lot of work in order to get an MBA- that doesn’t change,” said Tara.

She believes that even if the new acceptance of GRE gives more undergrads a chance to continue their education, the lack of real world experience will hurt them in the long run. Internships help, but a few years on the job can make a world of a difference in the rough job market.

“Once they’re out of school with an MBA in hand, they’re still where they started after their undergraduate,” said Tara.

It is true that an MBA is usually sought after by those with some real world experience, whether or not it includes business or management. But the economy and job market can close a lot of doors for people. Professionals, who are looking to get an MBA after beefing up their resume for a few years, should expect younger classmates to be alongside them as graduate school is seen as a more promising post-graduation path.

Personally, I have told many undergrads to think about graduate school before spending months searching CareerBuilder for their big break. The rise of graduate school applicants was going to happen with or without the downfall of the economy. For our parents, going to college was a privilege. For our generation, it’s a necessity.  And there’s a good chance that soon graduate school will become a necessity as well.

What will make someone an ideal hire in the future is not only a degree, but a diverse resume that includes graduate level education and a few years of work experience. After all, the reason for more management schools accepting GRE scores is to gain more diverse students, not to make it easier to slide into just any program.

As for Tara, her own reasons for going back to school are to “develop an edge”, not because “everyone and their mother is [now going back, too].”

What’s most important, though, is that an education is only worth something if there is real world experience to back it up.  “When you become a bookworm and all you do is study, you aren’t street smart,” said Tara.

**To check out MBA programs that are accepting GRE scores, click here.

Is It Possible to Live Below your Means in NYC?

After moving to New York City four years ago, I fell into the common trap of feeling like I could participate in the city’s extravagance the way the rich and the coddled enjoy the city.  Like many others that have traveled the road before me, I had to learn the hard way that I, unlike the numerous trust fund babies and bankers, did not have a Get Free pass into the city’s limitless playground for the wealthy.  Once that realization sank in and I stopped feeling sorry for myself, I was able to settle in and enjoy the real New York City.  That is, the one without all the flavor of the month restaurants with their $20 cocktails and over-obsessed neophytes.

There are plenty of ways to take in all this great city has to offer without overextending yourself and putting too much strain on your finances.  But, in a city where it isn’t unusual to allocate 50% of your salary towards housing, is it really possible for New Yorkers to live below their means?

Anything is possible, but if there ever was a city to test this notice, New York is it.  We won’t say yes or no, since each person’s finances are different and there are far too many variables to crunch, but there are definite ways to cut costs in the city without sacrificing too much convenience or some semblance of a social life.  Here are a few ways to try.

1.  Check for a local CSA or Food Co-op in your neighborhood. There’s a comprehensive list here which details all of the CSA’s in each borough.  Most of them usually amount to around $20 a week of food, and you’ll be eating healthy and in season while saving cash on store bought goods.

2.  Hang Local. Make friends in your neighborhood and check out local watering holes.  So much money is spent on overpriced meals, drinks and cabs.  Curtail some of that spending by hitting up local establishments.  You’ll meet local people, help out local business and save money.  If; however, pricey Manhattan is your game (or your borough), find activities that’ll provide low cost fun.

3.  Start shopping for Dollar Store wares. The Dollar Store has absolutely everything — well, most things.  If I’m ever in need of a new toothbrush, cosmetics, linens — even some cheap food, it’s sure to come in under $5 and usually under $2.  There’s rarely something that I need that I can’t find at the Dollar Store or a comparable knock-off, and I’ve practically furnished my entire kitchen for less than a hundred bucks soley from D.S. and Bobby’s Department Store in Brooklyn.

4.  Take Advantage of Free Events. There are quite a surprisingly quite a few events in the city that are free of charge — music concerts, outdoor dance festivals, art exhibits, comedy shows, museums.  There’s no reason to pay top dollar for events when you can still experience the city’s vast array of cultural activities for nothing. A good resource for more stuff is FreeNYC — check it out.

Life in NY can still be had when you make pointedly less than six figures.  It may beg for more creative solutions, but the point is that those activities still exist.  With a little thought and imagination, you can create a rich city life just like the other guys.

Photo by NightLord

Meet The Stars of The Tribeca Film Festival

Tickets for the Tribeca Film festival are currently on sale, but you don’t have to spend $15 a pop to take part of the activities that are happening around the city.  We’re all about the low-cost living, so it was quite a pleasure to learn that the Tribeca Film Festival, indieWIRE, and Apple are teaming up to allow movie buffs to interact with some of film’s brightest stars at the Prince St. Apple Store–for free! Read more

NYPL Offers “Job Search Central” for Job Seekers

As the old saying goes, practice makes perfect.  You can probably think of many areas in your life where a little bit of practice could make all the difference, but what about your job seeking skills? Everyone, young and old, could use some advice on today’s job market and a fresh set of eyes on your resume probably couldn’t hurt. Read more

Don’t Give Up Your Security for a Quick Deal Online

From ordering pizza to shopping for great deals, I might as well have a credit card machine attached to my laptop.  As part of a generation that couldn’t imagine what it was ever like without computers, I hold the same amount of trust in my lap top now that I did in my security blanket at the age of five.

We’re told over and over again to be careful when it comes to online purchases, but in all honesty, do we truly follow that rule? Unfortunately, with the economy in the toilet, there’s even more of a possibility that someone out there is trying to hock your information so keeping yourself secure is of the utmost importance.

About 64 percent of adults are somewhat comfortable using credit cards to make online purchases, according to Rasmussen Reports. The same survey also found that only 31 percent of adults check their online financial accounts on a daily basis, while 27 percent check in weekly.

In order to protect yourself when shopping online, be sure to check out the website that you’re using. Familiarize yourself with the site’s privacy and security policy. If there is no policy, that’s a huge red flag.

Check to see if the website is secure by taking at glance at the URL. It should read https instead of http, the “s” meaning that it’s secure. The URL main page may read http but at the point of purchase or any type of login, it will change to https. You can also tell if a site is secure by looking for the “lock” icon in the window of the browser.

Don’t give out any information that isn’t needed for a transaction, and be wary of any site that requires you to complete a purchase by sending your credit card number via email. Also, don’t use the same username and password as you would for your bank login or your email.

Try to limit your online purchases to just one credit card that comes with a safe online shopping guarantee. It will be easier to keep track of your purchases to see if there are any mistakes or chance of identity theft.

Last, don’t forget to protect your computer from any unwelcomed visitors. If you put a lock and key on your apartment, why shouldn’t you put one on your computer? There are plenty of anti-adware and anti-spyware programs out there that will help your protect your computer when shopping online. If you update these programs regularly, your information will remain under lock and key.

Still feeling unsure? Research any merchants or get more tips on online shopping through the Better Business Bureau (www.bbb.org) and TRUSTe (www.TRUSTe.org).

If you do become a victim of identity theft, be sure to file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (www.ftc.gov).

Solar Party at Sycamore Bar in Brooklyn

In the mood for laid-back after work event with an educational twist?  Look no further.  Sycamore Bar in in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn is hosting this week’s twice monthly meetup for Solar One – New York City’s first solar-powered Green Energy, Arts and Education Center.  Come out, have a beer, mingle, and ask the Solar One experts solar related questions. Read more

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